What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or in the holyname of liberty and democracy?” – Mohandas Gandhi, “Non-Violence in Peace and War”

by Debra Schaffer Hubert and Bob Nichols

(San Francisco, Berkeley) An intricate symbiotic relationship exists between the Church and the State. It is in blatant and conspicuous view in United States society.

We believe the extreme crisis of the lack of separation of church and military state is crucial to focus on with considering the dire need for success of the global peace and justice movement in ending the genocidal, apocalyptic wars the United States have been inflicting on the world.

We say apocalyptic because it is clear that the Christian Fundamentalist Administration doubts there is hope for a future. They think we are in the End Times according to Revelations. They have left whole continents permanently uninhabitable by the relentless dropping of radioactive uranium, as they are out, according to G.W. Bush, “fighting Evildoers for God.”[2]

We have been following recent Fundamentalist Christian trends and have made some alarming discoveries [3].

Ron Luce, leader of the BattleCry Christian youth movement, is a taxpayer paid political appointee by George W. Bush to the White House Advisory Commission on Drug Free Communities.

Luce, et al, in the far right wing Christian Fundamentalist camps, such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, are out fervently glorifying war in pursuit of the deeper implementation of their view of biblical world order.

They hold youth gatherings in stadium arenas across the country called BattleCry [4]. The Navy SEALS are used as Ron Luce’s right hand to loudly proclaim they believe they are “Christian Soldiers” in military duty and in civilian life.

Virtually all the propaganda in BattleCry events utilizes military rhetoric and metaphor. There is a Hummer sporting a red revolution flag on stage, to dog tags, posters with youth carrying automatic weapons and Navy SEALs giving Christian testimony and making “BattlePlans” for Jesus.

Ron Luce is not only applauding the Bush Administration’s war atrocities when he brings Navy SEALs, real or fake, on stage and talks about how noble it is to be a soldier and a Christian. BattleCry is, in essence, recruiting for G.W. Bush’s apocalyptic style of unending wars while at the same time encouraging a religiously repressive and destructively cultish society at home.

BattleCry is Reminiscent of Hitler’s youth brigades

George Bush’s endorsement of BattleCry is read to the cheering youth in the stadium arenas “Since its inception, Teen Mania (BattleCry’s founder) has demonstrated a strong commitment to organize young Christian men and women to help others in need. Your efforts contribute to a brighter future for all Americans.”

Sunsara Taylor of the World Can’t Wait, reports from the BattleCry gathering in Philadelphia [5] in her “Ron Luce’s Holy War” article, Franklin Graham, heir to Rev. Billy Graham’s throne, spoke at Philadelphia’s BattleCry. The heart of his speech was a call for holy war. He preached about the “battle for souls of men and women from North to South, East to West, over the entire earth.” There is, he declared, “No way to God but through Jesus Christ.” Incidentally, Billy Graham, Franklin’s father, is credited for converting G. W. Bush to Fundamentalist Christianity.

We believe this is strikingly similar to the Nazi Germany youth organization. The Hitler youth numbered 107,956 at the end of 1932. By the end of 1933 the Hitler youth held a membership of 2,300,000. The rise came from the merger of the Nazis with the Evangelical Church in Germany. [6]

All Branches of the Armed Services epidemic in zealous Christolotry

The Navy SEALs, unfortunately, are not the only military organizations who have infiltrated the country’s churches. We have observed with alarm that every military branch has top brass espousing Extremist Christian rhetoric.

Navy

The United States Navy Sea, Air and Land (SEAL) forces are the special operations forces of the U.S. Navy. They are the Navy’s most zealous and unquestioning warriors, having proven extreme commitment by going through a three tiered process before even becoming a SEAL.

Apply heat and huge amounts of pressure, add automatic weapons and the United States get a pumped up group of trained killers that are expert in stealthful military maneuvers, especially in the world’s waters.

The Navy SEALS at BattleCry are dressed in Desert Battle Dress Uniforms (BDU’s) such as they do in the Middle East to defeat the terrorists in the desert who are, according to top naval brass, Admiral Michael G. Mullen [7] “lying in wait to destroy freedom and liberty.”

After Schaffer’s BattleCry articles were published on Counterpunch and Buzzflash she received correspondence from a Navy Captain and civilian Attorney who prefers to remain anonymous. He states he is speaking out on behalf of separation of church and state as a concerned private citizen and not as a Navy Officer.

This Navy Captain is an example of a person who believes in the delusional legitimacy of a lethal armed military force equipped with radioactive genocidal weapons is a potentially good thing. Yet he denounces adamantly the use of religious ideology to dictate its actions.

The Navy Captain writes in an e-mail to Schaffer “I read with alarm your article on the recent BattleCry rally in Philadelphia where members of the U.S. Navy SEAL Team appeared in Uniform with weapons. I also saw photos of the event showing the SEAL team carrying automatic weapons. These are violations of U.S. Navy Regulations and the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice) [8] if in fact these individuals were truly Navy Personnel. It is a federal offense under

18 U.S.C. 912, if it was done for monetary gain of some kind.”

The Navy Lawyer continued “It seems to me that showing up at a rally in uniform, shooting off military weapons, gives the impression that they favor the violent suppression of the civil rights of those who disagree with their religious views. Their warlike rhetoric only affirms such a view – regardless of their denials of such intent. It’s like the Klan denying it is racist, and is just in favor of the rights of white people. Quite frankly, I get the impression that they are going to send a SEAL team out there to kill all those who don’t bow down with their particular version of Christianity!”

He added showing his alignment with the justification of military “We need more pacifists in this country, and I salute you because it also takes bravery to stand up for what is right. It is important that you protest even justifiable wars so that we do not get complacent about military action in general. Maybe if we get enough of them, it won’t be necessary for people like me to go off to strange places like Iraq that I would just as soon avoid. I would recommend that all pacifists serve in the military as medics and corpsmen. I think a person having been through it, their voice would be even stronger.”

“I would suggest that all concerned contact Americans United for Separation of Church and State and make this a public issue. [9] This is completely and utterly wrong.”

“The more I read about these people [BattleCry], I believe that they qualify as a Supremacist Organization under Article 1167 of the Navy Regulations. This means that military members cannot attend or participate in such groups even out of unifrm.”

Article 1167 states as follows:

“No person in the Naval service shall participate in any organization that espouses supremacist causes; attempt to create illegal discrimination based on race, creed, color, sex, religion, or national origin advocates the use of force or violence against the government of the United States or the government of any state territory, district, or possession thereof, or the government of any subdivision therein.”

He also states there are strict regulations regarding the use of munitions while not under military duty, even if blanks are shot.

Taylor recounts in her “Ron Luce’s Holy War article” about BattleCry Philadelphia. “A group of Navy SEALs are projected on the large screen above the stadium as they make their way from backstage. Dressed in desert BDUs carrying automatic weapons, kicking down doors and firing blanks into empty rooms along their way, they looked like the house-to-house raids and indiscriminate killing seen in rare footage of Iraq.”

The youth at BattleCry roar with enthusiastic cheering and approval of the staged entrance of these “honorable Christian warriors”.

This Navy Captain considers it his best move to approach Chief Naval Operations Officer, Admiral Michael G. Mullen to report this finding of SEALs in religious events.

When researching Admiral Mullen, we get some clues about his beliefs as we read remarks delivered on August 31, 2005 at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. Perhaps the Navy and Fundamentalist Christianity are in a deep committed connection with one another.

“I see many shades of service here -- green, light blue, and dark blue -- as well as sisters and brothers in arms from all over the world. I also see governmental agencies represented here, people who feel just as strongly about national security as any of us in uniform. You too wear the "cloth of the nation."

Admiral Mullen insinuates using the metaphor of the Navy as wearing the “Cloth of the Nation” as if it were as religious as it is military.

With someone like this in highest command, how can we even hope for any kind of substantial intervention?

The SEALs, having close affiliation with Fundamentalist Christians, are the most elite homophobic fighting force on the planet. They are recruiting directly from the Christian evangelical’s offspring in gatherings where sex and homosexuality is strictly denounced. Fighting “Satan” through the misogynistic state military apparatus is enthusiastically encouraged and boasted about.

Army

Blatantly religiously outspoken Christian Fundamentalist Army Lt. General William G. Boykin, appointed by G.W. Bush, has received critical alarm from Americans United for Separation of Church and State. He appears regularly in dress uniform to religious groups. Boykin is quoted “We, in the army of God, kingdom of God, have been raised for such a time as this.”

Richard T. Cooper writes in CommonDreams.org “General Casts War in Religious Terms.”[10] “In his public remarks, Boykin has also said that radical Muslims who resort to terrorism are not representative of the Islamic faith. Boykin’s reference to the God of Islam as ‘an idol’ may be perceived as particularly inflammatory.”

Conservative Christians have defended Boykin despite the Abu Ghraib scandal (the Christian Coalition had an online petition in support of Boykin on its homepage), and James Dobson of Focus on the Family called Boykin's statements "consistent with mainstream evangelical beliefs".

Sendtoscott exposes Boykin in Abu Ghraib “Hell House of the Religious Right.” [11] “Boykin told one gathering ‘Why is this man in the White House? The majority of Americans did not vote for him. He's in the White House because God put him there for a time such as this.’”

Schaffer adds “Everyone with any sense knows that Bush is not in the least bit qualified to be in the White House and being a fundamentalist Christian only exacerbates the reasons why.”

Nichols writes in his article “Confident US Generals Commit war crimes” [12] “... The amount of radiation released by the atomic bombs [in 1945] pales in comparison to the huge amount of permanent killing radiation released in Iraq. The total radioactive life span of uranium weapons is a majestically creepazoid 45 billion years. The Iraqis have a right to ask, "Why do the Americans hate us so? Why do the Americans want to exterminate us? ..."

Nichols continued "... Now, in 2006, the United States is the most successful fascist empire, with the most lethal military, in the history of the world. The fascist government of war criminals and crooks must be put out as soon as possible, certainly before they invade Iran and use global thermonuclear weapons as promised and nuclear munitions again to do so. Words do not count in this arena, though, only actions..."

Marines

First published on Sunday, November 7, 2004 in Agence France Press from Near Fallujah [13] “Holy War: Evangelical Marines Prepare to Battle Barbarians” this article illustrates the entrenchment this version of the Christian Faith has become in the U.S. Marine Corp.

“Men with buzzcuts and clad in their camouflage waved their hands in the air, M-16 assault rifles beside them and chanted heavy metal-flavored lyrics in praise of Christ. ‘You are the sovereign. Your name is holy. You are the pure spotless lamb,’ a female voice cried out on the loudspeakers as the Marines clapped their hands and closed their eyes, reflecting what lay ahead for them. ‘Victory belongs to the Lord’ another young Marine read.

They proceeded onto one of the bloodiest battles of the Iraqi war which leveled an entire city of 300,000 people to the ground, spraying people with deadly white phosphorus and genocidal radioactive uranium, with no signs of the intervention of humanitarian behavior whatsoever.

The American soldiers were witnessed getting anointed with oil before battle in Iraq just as Christ was supposedly anointed with oil-- this kind of fanaticism--this kind of disjointedness, is how violent crusades are justified and perpetuated.

Air Force

Christian Fundamentalism supremacy has been a common occurrence in the United States Air Force. More than 90% of the Air Force Academy identify as Christians.

Among other accusations, cadets are frequently pressured to attend chapel and take religious instruction, particularly in the fundamentalist evangelical Christian faith.

The Commandant of the Colorado Air Force Academy, Brig. General Johnny Weida, a Born-Again Christian, drew fire from at least one student who said the General put God in front of the Constitution in a speech to students.

Political Apathy Disorder

We pose this question: Do the Bush Administration policies include the use of the cover of Christianity to build forces for the United States Military and the military to build forces within the right wing church?

Abu Gharib and Guantanamo prove that the United States military can act against even International Treaties by torturing detainees, with guaranteed impunity, in order to accomplish a mission; it would inflict a mild tsk, tsk, at best, for the breaking of the code against military recruitment at supremacist Christian gatherings.

In other words, we have no hope of a system of checks and balances within the judiciary or any other branch of government. The only sliver of hope is that the American people rise up out of their sheepdom and join the ranks of people seriously planning how to make living on this earth sustainable and harmonious. At the risk of sounding pessimistic, this is looking impossible.

Why? A proposed addition to the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM-IV, sheds some light on the pervasive question of "Why are Americans OK with this Genocide in Iraq?"

The new diagnosis, Political Apathy Disorder, (PAD) [14] is proposed as a new Personality Disorder classified as 301.88. The diagnostic criteria include knowledge of social problems and the failure to act on them. Political conservatism to the point it "justifies social and economic inequalities" qualifies as a diagnostic criteria. The individual must meet three or more criteria for diagnosis.

In short, the hundreds of millions of Americans dominated and controlled by the fascist psychopaths hell bent on creating Armageddon in the Middle East, in addition to stealing their oil and gas till Armageddon comes, are also diagnosable as psychotically delusional.

After WWII, the victorious Allied Powers tried the German Nazi political and military leadership for their many War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity. A San Francisco based lawyer, Karen Parker, who specializes in Humanitarian Law and Armed Conflict Law, is pursuing a lawsuit against certain corporations and the United States government for the Massacre at Fallujah, Iraq. Many of the same legal principles are involved. It is Genocide no matter how the US tries to spin it and the whole world is watching as psychotic Americans try to change TV channels.

The Denouncement of Secular Humanism and Liberalism and the control of the population through biblical authoritarianism.

BattleCry is not just a call to arms against the literal biblical “Satan”, but a deeper call against the perceived enemy within the State – none other than secular humanism and/or liberalism, which is scapegoat #1 next to terrorists, as if it is the offspring of the devil himself.

Luce’s Holy War follows the Fundamentalist call for Christian youth to denounce secularism and embrace strict biblical law, especially around expressions of sexuality and its many paths of natural diversity.

The Fundamentalists are claiming it is sexual diversity that is angering God and destroying society. We assert it is unrealistic, puritanistic sexual repression and militarism that are causing societal degradation and violence. [15]

Sexuality expressed in conscious, accepting and mutually respecting ways, can only benefit society. Sex is a deep expression of love. This is what the right wing sex repressed is trying to withhold from the world.

Preachers as Pacifiers

There are reports of FEMA plans to use Pastors as pacifiers in preparation for Martial Law [16]. “A nationwide secretive initiative trains volunteers to teach congregations to ‘obey the government’ in emergencies during seizure of guns, property, forced inoculations and possible forced relocation.

The FEMA directors told the Pastors that attended a meeting it was their job to help implement FEMA and Homeland Security directives in anticipation of any of these eventualities. The first directive was for Pastors to preach to their congregations Romans 13 in order to teach them to “obey the government” when martial law is declared.”

Romans 13 proclaims “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. Consequently, he who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment upon themselves.”

There is an urban myth which accuses Hitler of having used Romans 13 to control the population of Christians in Germany. [17]

This is what Schaffer, heard over and over at BattleCry and inside Christian circles when questioning Christians regarding their thoughts about the policies of the Bush Administration “God instructs us to trust in the government because all governments are put in power by God.” Questioning the government is akin to questioning God. So don’t. Period. End of discussion.

With the Bush Administration, the military gets a free ticket inside the Fundamentalist Christian churches and events across the country. Christian military men also hold many key posts in Bush Administration governmental appointments. It’s a, you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours, kind of deal.

Another of Bush’s appointments drawing criticisms is that of Paul Bonicelli as deputy director of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which is in charge of all programs to promote democracy and good governance overseas.

Bonicelli is Dean of academic affairs of Patrick Henry College in rural Virginia. [18] William Fisher writes in “Bush’s Newest Crusader” “The motto for this tiny college is ‘For Christ and Liberty.’ It requires that all of its 300 students sign a 10-part ‘statement of faith’ declaring that they believe ‘Jesus Christ, born of a virgin, is God come in the flesh. Jesus Christ literally rose bodily from the dead and that hell is a place where all who die outside of Christ shall be confined in conscious torment for eternity.’”

Faculty members too, must sign a pledge stating they share a literalist belief in the Bible. Many Patrick Henry students are chosen to serve as interns working for White House political adviser Karl Rove, for the White House Office of Public Liaison and for Republican members of the House and Senate.”

Fisher goes on to report “In 2002, Bush appointed Bonicelli, along with former Vatican adviser John Klink and Janice Crouse of the ultra-conservative Concerned Women for America, to an American delegation attending a United Nations children’s conference, where they sought to promote biblical values in U.S. foreign policy. One can only wonder how Muslims, the target audience for these USAID programs, will react to the view that ‘all who die outside of Christ shall be confined in conscious torment for eternity.’”

No Child Left Behind really means No child left behind getting biblical teaching and saved by Jesus

We know what the “No Child Left Behind” act is really about. It is about making sure that all school children get a bible based curriculum. Just like Tim LeHaye’s bestselling “Left Behind” End Times ideology book series proclaims, in order to be saved during Revelation’s Armageddon a person must proclaim they are a follower of Christ. Just like in the crusades of old, the end times are thought to be in the present.

No Child Left Behind’s purpose is to systematically destroy public schools. It was widely encouraged by the Christian conservatives so that they can denounce secular public schools and bring back state sponsored religious indoctrination in schools by allowing for vouchers to be used by students at schools of the parents choosing.

Schaffer, as a parent of youth in school throughout the 1990s and 2000s, can tell you the kids are privy to the illegitimacy of the standardized testing and do not give a rats ass about trying to do well on it. Students are scoring false negative test scores and the public schools are taking the rap thus paving the way for the justification of vouchers.

Even if it was a legitimate way to test competence of school staff and student ability, which it is not, it was designed purposely to make public schools be scapegoated failures.

Bush and his ideologues are on a mission to bring American school children to the ranks of the military through the religion of Christianity and turn the military into a fighting apparatus for their version of a literal biblical reality, both from inside the United States and out into the world.

Radical nonviolent direct action intervention – a call to Nemisis

We believe as concerned citizens, it is our duty to intervene with urgency.

The church mixed with State has robbed woman and humanity of a chance of life free from violence from it’s inception.

The etymology of “patriarchy” can be traced to the Greek patria, meaning “fatherland.” “Patriot” is rooted in the Greek patros, meaning “loyal supporter of the fatherland.” Essentially, a patriot can be seen as one who defends a patriarchy, or, one who fights for the survival of the fatherland.

Mary Daly writes in her long awaited guide to overcoming patriarchy, Amazon Grace, that Mathilda Josyln Gage, writer of Woman, Church and State, was effectively erased from suffragist history because she wanted to take on the Church State.

In her magnum opus Woman, Church and State Gage writes “The most stupendous system of organized robbery known has been that of the church toward women. A robbery that has not only taken her self-respect but all rights of person, the fruits of her own industry, her opportunities of education, the exercise of their own judgment, her own conscience, her own will.”

Liberal Christians were complicit to silencing Gage’s voice knowing that they would have to overthrow their own spiritual beliefs to denounce Christianity on the basis that it controls and dominates women.

This is a disturbing trend that can be witnessed inside the peace movement. Persons who want to tame the military, don’t like the way we are using it; but won’t flat out denounce its systemic illegitimacy are legion. Not to name names; but, mostly the Progressive Democrat type of mindset does this.

Or others, who don’t want to stand in the way of freedom of religion and who are not willing to confront the church’s complicity directly claiming protection of freedom of religion. When protesting the BattleCry rallies on the steps of San Francisco’s city hall, some of the activists wanted to “break bread” with the Fundamentalists instead of openly and unapologetically protesting them.

Others say, your authors included, freedom of religion does not mean freedom to advocate supremacy and hatred. These must be, without hesitation, adamantly denounced.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton has a quote that is pertinent which is found in Mary Daly’s “Beyond God the Father”. “Take the snake, the fruit tree and the woman from the tableau, and we have no fall, nor frowning judge, no Inferno, no everlasting punishment – hence no need of a Savior. Thus the bottom falls out of the whole Christian theology. Here is the reason why in all the Biblical researches and higher criticisms, the scholars never touch the position of women.”

Mary Daly’s groundbreaking work of Amazon Grace is a call to Nemisis, as redefined by her 1: Virtue beyond justice, acquired by Inspired Acts of Righteous Fury; Virtue enabling Seers to unblindfold captive Justice 1: participation in the powers of the Goddess Nemesis; Elemental disruption of the patriarchal balance of terror; Passionate Spinning/Spiraling of Archaic threads of Gynergy (female energy).”

Schaffer interprets this as a reallocation of the forces of energy which are now geared in the direction of patriarchal authoritarianism to the shifting of those gears radically toward egalitarian feminism which cares for and nurtures life to harmony.

Once the warmongers realize we are on to them they are likely to despoil us in order to control us [18], like they have done in the Middle East. Despoiling is a Machaiavellian tactic which renders the object to be controlled destabalized by inducing sufficient suffering to render them unable to act in resistance.

This is why we must take this current widespread religious popularity trend down, not from the outside, but from the inside, where we can confront them directly and win over communities of right wing co-opted people can have impetus to change from within. The warmongering right wing leaders won’t see the resistance coming because they have been focusing on outward assault instead. We may then have a slight chance of redeeming these seemingly irreversible trends.

Therefore, we must go inside the churches and military camps with a dire call for the divorce of organized religion and the military state.

We say we must rid society of the myth that the patriarchal and misogynistic religious/military culture which is destroying all of nature, is in any way normal or beneficial.

We must demand immediate and radical disarmament in exchange for tremendous expenditures on a global scale of pure, unadulterated and extensive humanitarian aid for the suffering and dying earth and its people. Nothing short of this makes any sense.

[End]

Debra Schaffer Hubert is a peace and social justice activist with War Resisters League West. She is exposing and instigating nonviolent direct action confrontation of the right wing Christian extremist movement. She encourages interested potential allies to e-mail her at dshubert@gmail.com

Bob Nichols is a Project Censored Award Winner. He is a correspondent for the San Francisco Bay View newspaper and a frequent contributor to various online publications. Nichols is completing a book based on 15 years of nuclear war in Central Asia. He is a former employee of the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant. You are encouraged to write him at bob.bobnichols@gmail.com or DUweapons@gmail.com.

Translated into French and Spanish by Fabrice Hubert for publication in Europe and South America. Fabrice is a professional linguist, genealogist, language tutor, translator and a native of France living near San Francisco, California. He can reached at zzfabrice@yahoo.com

Notes:

1. Amazon Grace; Re-calling the Courage to Sin Big published in January, 2006 Patriarchy 1:society manufactured and controlled by males: FATHERLAND; society in which every legitimated institution is entirely in the hands of males and a few selected henchwomen; society characterized by oppression, repression, depression, narcissism, cruelty, racism, classism, ageism, o[speciesism,] objectification, sadomasochism, necrophilia; joyless society, ruled by Godfather, Son, and Company; society fixated on proliferation, propagation, procreation, and bent on the destruction of all Life 2: the prevailing religion of the entire planet, whose essential message is necrophilia.

19. Katherine Yurika, Yurkia Report, News Intelligence Analysis, “The Despoiling of America, How George W. Bush became the head of the new American Dominionist Church/State. February 11, 2004 YurikaReport.com

Nothing is said in your analysis about the Neo-Cons who rules the States and are not Christians at all but are the thinkers creating the actual Neo-Cons ideology pushing to the war against all the the muslim world . This ideology don't comme from Christians but from the Israeli Lobby in U.S.A . And the friends of the Neo-Cons are not the entire Christianity -only the Evangelist Sionists Protestants . Catholic church and the pope comdemned the war against Irak and the future war against Iran . Presbyterians, Metodists, Anglicans condamned them also

Why the analysis of Meirsheamer and Walt about the "Israel Lobby " and his place in the foreign policy of the USA is not remembered by you?

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